Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 73462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
But he’s here. He’s standing right in front of me. And it doesn’t make any damned sense.
I clench my fists at my sides. I can’t breathe. I can’t think.
I take a step forward.
Then another.
Jake stiffens. He looks like a ghost. Like he doesn't know how to exist in this room, in this moment, with me staring at him like I’m trying to decide whether to hug him or kill him.
My jaw tightens. “Say something,” I rasp.
Nothing.
He parts his lips, but no words come.
His eyes—fuck, his eyes—aren’t the same. They used to be full of fire, full of life. Now they’re guarded, unreadable. And that terrifies me more than anything.
Sienna swallows hard and turns to face me fully. “Brett, who is he?”
That question hits harder than a bullet.
Who is he?
Do I even know anymore?
I stare at Jake, my chest caving in, the weight of the last two decades pressing down on me. My stomach clenches so tight I think I might be sick.
My hands shake. My throat tightens. My pulse is pounding so hard I can hear it in my ears.
I force the words out, my voice barely more than a whisper.
“He’s Jake,” I say. “And he’s supposed to be dead.”
EPISODE 192
DOPPELGÄNGER
Emily
I’m frozen.
I watched Brett lunge at River, grab his collar. Brett’s blue eyes were—still are—full of rage. Yet I see something else in his gaze as well.
I’m just not sure what it is.
I want to run to River. I want to throw my arms around him, press my face into his chest, and let my heart settle at last. But I can’t move. Something is wrong.
He doesn’t reach for me.
He looks at me, yes, but not the way he did before. Instead, there is hesitation. A flicker of something unreadable in his eyes.
And the stranger—why is he here?
I should be happy that River is back, but all I feel is an ache so deep I can barely draw breath.
Is he still mine? Was he ever?
I told him I loved him, but he didn’t return the sentiment. Still, he promised to help me, to get my designs back, to…
I sigh.
The man with him is blond—blonder than Brett but not as blond as I am. Of course, mine isn’t quite all natural. He’s tall, handsome, with a sculpted jawline and brilliant blue eyes. His hair is thick and unruly.
I cock my head. He reminds me of someone.
It hits me like a bloody anvil.
He looks like a bloody male version of Misty.
I must be seeing things.
I’m back, Emily, and I’m glad to see you.
River’s words to me before chaos broke out.
He still stands against the wall. Brett is holding Sienna’s hand whilst staring at the new man. Jake, his name is.
And Jake…
He looks …
Well, he looks like Misty, but he also looks…forlorn, really.
The weight in my chest is unbearable, pressing, crushing, leaving me raw and aching in ways I don’t understand. My mind races, grasping at pieces that refuse to fit.
River is here. He’s standing right in front of me, but it doesn’t feel real.
It should feel like relief. The man I love has returned.
Instead, I feel like I’m on the edge of something dark and dangerous, as if I’ve stumbled onto a stage mid-performance, but I don’t know my lines or what role I’m playing.
Who the hell is Jake, and why is Brett looking at him like he’s seeing a phantom?
I stare at him, at the sharp angles of his face, at the undeniable resemblance—the same striking blue eyes, the same high cheekbones, the same proud tilt of the chin.
God, he looks like Misty.
Misty is here, somewhere in this house, completely unaware that there is a man standing in the foyer who could be her male doppelgänger.
No one speaks.
The silence is thick, suffocating, filled with a million unsaid things.
I force my voice past my tightening throat. “Who are you?” I say directly to Jake.
Sienna already asked, but she asked Brett.
Jake looks at me for a split second until he returns his gaze first to Brett and then to River.
No one answers.
Brett’s entire body is rigid, every muscle tense like a coiled wire ready to snap.
Sienna’s fingers are curled tightly around Brett’s, and she looks just as lost as I feel.
River exhales sharply, raking a hand through his hair. “It’s complicated.”
My heart clenches.
It’s complicated.
I take a step forward, voice shaking. “That’s not an answer.”
River finally meets my gaze, and something in his expression shifts—regret, maybe? Guilt? I don’t know. But whatever it is, it’s not the look of a man who is simply happy to see me again.
And I hate that.
“Emily—”
“No.” I shake my head. “You don’t get to come back with a stranger that seems to have both you and Brett in a tizzy—and I’ll just say it, a stranger that looks uncannily like one of the women here—and say it’s complicated like that’s supposed to mean something.” I’m fueled by too many unanswered questions, too much confusion, too much everything. “You left, River. You left, and now you’re back, and after I told you—”